Volker M Heins
Visiting Scholar
LALS
Contact
Building & Room:
UH 1507
Address:
601 S. Morgan St.
Email:
About
Volker M. Heins is a political scientist and migration scholar who, till 2022, taught as a professor at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. He is a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities (KWI) Essen, and convenor of an international research group on “Internalizing Borders: The Social and Normative Consequences of the European Border Regime“ at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF), Bielefeld University. In his earlier life, he has been teaching and researching at Frankfurt University as well as at McGill and Yale, among others.
During his stay at LALS, Volker will collaborate with Professor Soledad Alvarez Velasco and pursue his interest in the global sanctuary city movement by focusing on sanctuary policies and practices in Chicago (as well as in other places). What’s the history of Chicago’s Welcoming City Ordinance, first issued in 1985? Who is in favor of sanctuary and who is opposed, and why? What drives public opinion on sanctuary in Chicago, perhaps in contrast to other parts of the country? To what extent do sanctuary cities really protect migrants from border power? Are local sanctuary policies and practices in Chicago successful in mitigating the racializing and divisive effects of the border regime inside the city?
His most recent publication is "Internalization of Borders: The Concept and Its Applications", Society (2024), https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-024-01004-5